Liberal Party to boost the powers of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, if elected

Opposition Leader John Pesutto is committed to boosting the powers of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, according to senior Liberal sources.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto would boost the powers of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog if elected to government.

Senior Liberal sources said Mr Pesutto was committed to increasing the powers of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to make it easier for corruption findings to be made.

Under current legislation, IBAC is unable to conclude corrupt conduct has occurred unless it is satisfied a criminal offence has been committed.

The legislative requirement is considerably more onerous than in other states.

The Coalition this week introduced a Bill to implement recommendations of the Operation Daintree report. Picture NCA NewsWire/Aaron Francis

The issue was most recently highlighted in the Operation Daintree report, which investigated a $1.2m grant provided to the Labor-affiliated Health Workers Union ahead of the 2018 state election.

While it stopped short of finding corrupt conduct, it found “ample evidence of the misuse of power and influence by ministerial advisers and departmental executives who breached codes of conduct and established conventions”.

“The pursuit by advisers of the perceived interests of their ministers, including the Premier, at the expense of proper process and standards is another example of the phenomenon of grey corruption

that is of increasing concern to integrity bodies around Australia,” the report found.

“Grey corruption involves the bending or breaking of rules, even if that might not amount to criminal behaviour, but that unfairly favours the allies, friends and networks of decision makers.

“It corrodes standards of public governance, decision-making in the public interest and trust in government, and if left unchecked increases the risk of corrupt criminal offending.”

Former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich says there has been a “loss of public confidence in ministers”. Picture: AAP Image/James Ross

Former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich warned before leaving the role in December that the watchdog was powerless to do anything about grey corruption because of current legislation.

Mr Redlich said there had been a “material decline in the standards of integrity” that had led to a “loss of public confidence in ministers, their advisers, and public service”.

It is understood Mr Pesutto is keen to remove the requirement that IBAC be satisfied a criminal offence has been committed in order to find corrupt conduct has occurred.

The current legislative framework was put in place under the former Baillieu coalition government.

The Coalition this week introduced a Bill to implement recommendations of the Operation Daintree report.

The Opposition has also proposed legislation to both fast track the publishing of IBAC reports, and to give the watchdog greater powers.

Bills currently before parliament would restore the power of IBAC to hold public hearings, would restrict the provision of advance copies of reports, and expedite legal processes that may otherwise be used to unreasonably obstruct the tabling of reports.

Recently, IBAC has been dragged through the Supreme Court to stop the release of at least two major reports.

Daniel Andrews has been involved in at least four known IBAC corruption probes.

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